After establishing winning programs at Kentucky, Southeastern Louisiana, ValdostaState and Iowa Wesleyan, Mumme looks to take the New Mexico State Aggie football program to heights not seen since the early 1960’s.

The Texas native has concocted a brand a football that he gleaned from endless hours of film study of Levell Edward’s record setting offensive system at BYU and has put his own stamp on it.

He first turned his magic loose at Copperas CoveHigh School as head coach in the mid-1980’s.

Then he took his brand of football and the team’s star quarterback, Dustin Dewald, to IowaWesleyanCollege.

Mumme inherited a program that went 0-10 the previous season and had only three players returning from that squad. In his first year IWC went 7-4 and advanced to the Steamboat Classic. He followed that with seasons of 8-4 and 10-2.

Then he headed south, being named the head coach at Valdosta State (GA) in 1992. In 1996, his final year at ValdostaState, the Blazers averaged nearly 39 points and over 484 yards per game. That season the Blazers were ranked #1 in the country and advanced to the NCAA Division II quarterfinals for the second time in three years. The Blazers had never advanced to the NCAA playoffs before Mumme’s arrival.

Mumme’s impact on college football may have been below the radar to the casual college football observer, but not to University of Kentucky Athletics Director and SEC basketball coaching legend C.M. Newton.

Newton was looking for a way to make Wildcat football successful and capitalize on the incredible success and following of UK basketball.

He found that way by hiring Mumme away from ValdostaState.

Newton wasn’t afraid to hire a coach from a smaller school.

Newton got the same chance himself when Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach and athletics director at the University of Alabama, hired Newton from small Transylvania College in Kentucky to coach the Crimson Tide.Newton went on to win over 200 games at Alabama, 129 more at Vanderbilt and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990.

It was a good gamble for Bear Bryant and it proved to be a good gamble for Newton.

In his first season as head coach, the Wildcats improved from 109th in the nation in total offense to sixth and beat Alabama for the first time in 75 years.

For his efforts he was named the American Football Coaches Association Region 2 Coach of the Year. UK’s five wins were the most for the school since 1993 and the Wildcats swept their non-conference opponents for the first time since 1989.

The next year he took UK to new heights. Mumme led the Wildcats to a victory over #21 LSU, the Wildcat’s first road victory over a ranked team in 21 years. UK finished 7-5 with the season culminating with a trip to the Outback Bowl, as Mumme became the first Wildcat coach to take the team to a New Year’s Day bowl game since Bear Bryant in 1951.

In 1999 the Wildcats went 6-6 and played in the Music City Bowl. He was named the South/Southwest Coach of the Year by Football News. College Football Hall of Fame coaches Jerry Claiborne and Bryant are the only other coaches to have taken the Wildcats to consecutive bowl games prior to Mumme’s arrival at Kentucky.

In 1999, both ends of Commonwealth Stadium were enclosed, along with the construction of 40 suites, 10 in each corner of the stadium. The total number of seats was increased from 57,800 to 67,606.

The year before Mumme arrived in Lexington, the Wildcats averaged 40,647 fans per game. The following year the team averaged 59,110. In 1999, the Wildcats averaged 67,756, still a school record.

After his record setting stay at UK, Mumme undertook the most diverse challenge of his career, building a program from scratch.

Southeastern Louisiana had dropped football after the 1985 season.

Mumme was hired in June of 2002.The program had no equipment, no coaches and no players.

So Mumme went to work, building the Lion program from the ground up.

In two seasons on the field, SLU had remarkable results.

aIn his first year at Southeastern the Lions posted a 5-7 record, the fourth best mark for a Division I-A or I-AA startup program since 1980. This season the Lions went 7-4, including a 51-17 win over #6 McNeeseState. That win propelled the second-year program into the top 25 in the national I-AA rankings the next week.

Southeastern ranked first among NCAA Division I-AA teams in total offense per game (537.1 yards) and passing offense per game (408 yards).

During his two seasons at Southeastern, the Lions were 10-3 at home and in 2003, led all NCAA Division I-AA schools in attendance per capacity at 126.55 percent. Strawberry Stadium seats 7,408 but expecting great fan support, portable-seating was brought in to accommodate the surge in attendance. SLU sold out four of the six home games and averaged 9,396 per game.

Following the initial season, the university conducted an economic impact study and found that college football at Southeastern had an $8.3 million impact on Hammond and the surrounding region.

Mumme was hired as head coach at New MexicoState December 30, 2004. The 53-year-old native of San Antonio, Texas, also served as the offensive coordinator at UTEP (1982-85), the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at WestTexasState (1980-81) and was the head coach at ArkansasPassHigh School (1979) and Copperas CoveHigh School (1986-88) in Texas.He began his coaching career as an assistant at MoodyHigh School (1976-78) in Corpus Christi, Texas.

In his first season as the Aggies’ head coach in 2005, Mummeled the NMSU’s passing attack into nation prominence, as the Aggies finished 24th in passing offense in nation with 266 passing yards a game. The Aggies also broke the school records for passing attempts for a season (547), most completions in a season (310) and most completions in game (40 vs San Jose State 11/19).

Mumme assisted seniors Paul Dombrowski and Jimmy Cottrell to school record breaking performances. Dombrowski broke the school record for most catches in a season with 78, while Cottrell led the nation in tackles per game with 14.9 a contest, breaking the school recorded for tackles in a season with 179.

His 2006 campaign at NMSU saw the Aggies finish 4-8 overall. In 2006 Mumme once again showed that he is the master mind behind the Air Raid offense as he led the Aggies to break several school records including most plays in a season (930), most net yards gained (5,702), most touchdowns (50), most pass attempts in a game (73), most pass attempts in a season (606), most pass completions in a game (50), most pass completions in a season (420), most passing yards gained in a season (4,792), most touchdowns thrown in a season (34), longest pass completion for a touchdown (96), longest pass completion (96) and most points scored in a season (374). He also earned his 100th career victory with a 42-20 win over UtahState (11/25).

Nationally, the Aggies ranked second in passing offense per game (399.3), third in total offense per game (475.2), third in opponent third-down conversion percentage (28.1%), fifth in punt return yardage (15.33), sixth in net punting (38.3), 15th in scoring offense per game (31.2) and 16th in passing efficiency (150.24).

Mumme coached All-American wide receiver Chris Williams, who led the nation in receiving yards per game (117.9) and catches per game (7.66).His 1,861 all-purpose yards also ranked fourth in the nation. Coach Mumme guided quarterback Chase Holbrook to finish the year with 4,619 yards passing and 4,541 yards of total offense, both school records for a single-season. Holbrook ranked second in the nation in total offense per game 378.4, while leading the Aggie offense to a number two ranking in the nation in passing offense per game with 399.3 yards, third in total offense with 475.1 yards per game, 12th in passing efficiency (155.06) and 15th in the country in scoring offense with 31.1 points per game. Holbrook also broke two NCAA records for total offense and passing yards by a sophomore quarterback.

In his third season with the Aggies Mumme saw NMSU finish 4-9 overall. Mumme led the Aggies’ high powered offense to another successful offensive year nationally. During the course of the season the Aggies had nine starters miss a total of 35 games, including Chase Holbrook, A.J. Harris, Chris Williams, Nick Cleaver, Jamar Cotton, Chris Nwoko, La’Auli Fonoti, Tonny Glynn and Vincent Butler.

The Aggies finished 35th in the nation in total offense (423.5 ypg), 32nd in scoring offense (24 ppg), fifth in passing offense (331.2 ypg) and 33rd in pass efficiency (134.8). The Aggie offense had its second best year in school history. Mumme also guided quarterback Chase Holbrook as Holbrook finished eighth in the nation in total offense (322.6 ypg). Holbrook would break the school record for passing yards, total offense, pass attempts, pass completions and pass completion percentage in 2007. Three Aggies also made all-WAC honors; Chris Williams, Mike Martinez and Dante Floyd, while Williams was also named to the Belitnikoff Finalist List

In 17 seasons as a head coach, Mumme has a record of 105-93-1 and has taken teams to the postseason seven times.

Mumme’s goals for the Aggie program are clearly defined.

“Coaching is teaching and the number one reason a student-athlete comes to New MexicoState is to get a degree. You have to motivate your students to use the tools provided by the university. When I talk to a mom or dad about coming to New MexicoState, we want them to know that the most important thing is to graduate and become a productive member of society.”

“On the field our number one goal is to win the WAC. You play in a conference to win it. The second goal is to get to a bowl game. When you play in a great league like the WAC, that’s the benchmark.”

Mumme’s offensive style and coaching acumen has resulted in gaudy numbers on the field and has produced great players and coaches.

Iowa Wesleyan set numerous school and NAIA records. In one game against Harding in 1991, IWC threw 86 passes, completing an NAIA record 61. His teams also set school records for most passing yards (538) in a game and most yards of total offense in a game (672). In 1990, the Tigers led the NAIA in passing yards per game at nearly 338 yards per game. In his final season in 1991, the Tigers set NAIA records for most total pass completions (468) and average completions per game (39).

At ValdostaState, Mumme’s top player was quarterback Chris Hatcher.Hatcher was a record-setting signal caller for the Blazers during Mumme’s tenure and was named the NCAA Division II Player of the Year.He later was an assistant to Mumme at Kentucky and last year as head coach, led ValdostaState to the NCAA Division II national championship. Hatcher went on to coach at Valdosta State. Over his seven years at Valdosta, Hatcher posted an .864 winning percentageregistered a 68-7 mark in the regular season was 56-6 in Gulf South Conference play had 60 All-GSC selections coached 16 All-America selections. Hatcher then took the head coaching job at Georgia Southern in 2007 and was replaced by David Dean who led the Blazers to the Division II National Championship in 2007. Dean became just the second first-year head coach to lead his squad to the Division II title.

At Kentucky, Mumme’s most prominent player was none other than Tim Couch.

Couch was the number one pick in the 1999 NFL draft after an amazing career at UK.He was named the SEC Male Athlete of the Year in 1999 and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. In his final collegiate season, Couch completed 400 of 553 passes (72.3 percent) for 4,275 yards and 36 touchdowns. His pass completions total was the best in the nation while his yardage total, touchdowns and completion percentage each ranked second in the country.

The coach who was Mumme’s right hand man for ten years at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State and Kentucky was Mike Leach.

Leach has gone on to lead Texas Tech to a six-year record of 65-37, eight consecutive bowl appearances including a win over Virgina in the 2007 Konica Minolta Gator Bowl.

Mumme was the NAIA district coach of the year in 1989 and 1991 at Iowa Wesleyan and led the Tigers to the postseason all three years, including the NAIA playoffs in 1991.

He was the Gulf South Conference and the AFCA Region II, Division II Coach of the Year in 1996 while the head coach at Valdosta State and in 1997, his first season at Kentucky, he was named the American Football Coaches Association Region 2 Coach of the Year.

Mumme’s credentials on the field are impressive, but so is his work in the community. Mumme has been involved with several different organizations and charity projects such as the Wounded Warriors, an organization that supports soldiers that were wounded while over seas. Most recently Mumme and his wife June headed a campaign called NMSU Aggies are Tough Enough to Wear Pink, a cause to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research. In just three short months the Mumme’s along with the entire Las Cruces community raised over $300,000. Hal and team also supported the fund raising effort by wearing pick shirt and pink socks during their game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Mumme and the Aggies plan to make this an annual event to help find a cure for this dieses. Mumme also took part in the John Michael Montgomery/ Hal Mumme Golf Tournament that raised over $100K for cancer research.

Mumme was born in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas. He played football at New Mexico Military Institute (1970-71) and Tarleton State University (1974-75). He received his bachelor’s degree from Tarleton in 1975.